In Australia and internationally, there is strong interest in the role of ‘cultural’ and ‘creative’ activity in the economy, such as highlighted recently by Australia’s National Cultural Policy Creative Australia. These terms are often used to describe activities connected with the arts, media, heritage, design, fashion and information technology.

One-third of the world’s population is online, an increase of 528 percent over the past 10 years*. While Internet penetration rates vary by geographic region; North America (79%), Australia/Oceania (68%), Europe (61%), Latin America (40%), Middle East (36%), Asia (26%) and Africa (14%), they continue to climb steadily— especially in the developing countries of the world.

This manifesto sets out our 10-point plan to bolster the creative industries, one of the UK’s fastest growing sectors.

Key findings:

The UK creative economy provides jobs for 2.5 million people, more than financial services, advanced manufacturing or construction.

The creative economy is one of the few industrial areas where the UK has a credible claim to be world–leading, but history shows this position of leadership position cannot be taken for granted.

Our 10 recommendations include incentivising experimentation with digital technologies by arts and cultural organisations, developing local creative clusters, adopting our new definitions of the creative industries and economy – which are simple, robust and recognise the central role of digital technologies – and ensuring government funding schemes do not discriminate against creative businesses.

This document is an output from an Arcadia funded research project. It draws evidence from a wide range of sources to provide a compelling account of the means of measuring the impact of digital resources and using evidence to advocate how change benefits people. The aim is to provide key information and a strong model for the following primary communities of use: the cultural, heritage, academic or creative industries.

The term ‘two cultures’ was coined more than 50 years ago by scientist and novelist C.P. Snow to describe the divergence in the world views and methods of scientists and the creative sector. This divergence has meant that innovation systems and policies have focussed for decades on science, engineering, technology and medicine and the industries that depend on them. The humanities, arts and social sciences have been bit players at best; their contributions hidden from research agendas, policy and program initiatives, and the public mind.